Climate Change Assessment

for Esmeraldas, ECUADOR:

A Summary

UN-HABITAT’s Cities and Climate Change Initiative promotes enhanced climate change mitigation and
adaptation in developing country cities. Esmeraldas is a pilot city of the Initiative, and this document is an
initial output of the city’s Cities and Climate Change Initiative activities. This summary on climate change
assessment for Esmeraldas is based on the report titled “Adaptation to Climate Change in Ecuador and
the City o f Esmeraldas: An Assessment of Challenges and Opportunities”

The Esmeraldas Climate Change Assessment explores the challenges and opportunities facing Ecuador
and the City of Esmeraldas in their adaptation to future climates. Starting with an overview of the climate
change hazards that the city is exposed to, the study examines various climate change projections,
exploring the potential negative and positive impacts of contrasting climate scenarios. This is followed by
an examination of the vulnerability of Esmeraldas to climate change, focusing on current urban dynamics.
The assessment then looks at Esmeraldas’ adaptive capacity to climate change, focusing on policy and
institutions at both national and local level. It concludes with recommendations for both national and Cities And Climate Change Initiative
local level interventions to improve climate change adaptation in Esmeraldas.

HS Number: HS/157/10E
ISBN Number:(Volume) 978-92-1-132269-9

United Nations Human Settlements Programme

Sustainable Urban Development Network (SUD-Net)
Urban Environment and Planning Branch, UN-HABITAT
P. O. Box 30030, 00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 254-020-7625404, Fax: 254-020-7623715
Email: sud-net@unhabitat.org
Website: www.unhabitat.org/sudnet
cities and climate change initiative

CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT FOR

ESMERALDAS, ECQUADOR:
A Summary
Copyright © United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)

All rights reserved

United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)
P.O Box 30030 00100 Nairobi GPO KENYA
Tel: 254-020-7623120 (Central Office)
www.unhabitat.org

HS Number: HS/157/10E
ISBN Number:(Volume) 978-92-1-132269-9

DISCLAIMER
The designations employed and the presentation of material in this report do not imply of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the
Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning
the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries, or regarding its economic system or degree of development. The analysis conclusions
and recommendations of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme
or its Governing Council.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This report is based on the Adaptation to Climate Change in Ecuador and the city of Esmeraldas: An Assessment of Challenges and
Opportunities, 2009, prepared within the framework of UN-HABITAT’s Cities in Climate Change Initiative.

Principal authors: Rodrigo Sierra, Saskya Flores, Giannina Zamora.

Contributors: Laura Cedres
Summarised by: Ndinda Mwongo
Editor: Tom Osanjo
Design, Layout and Printing: United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) Publishing Services Section, ISO 14001:2004-certified

Cover Photos:Photos © UN-HABITAT

ii
 cities and climate change initiative

contents

1.0 Introduction 5
1.1 Cities and Climate Change 5
1.2 UN-HABITAT’s Cities and Climate Change Initiative 5
1.3 Esmeraldas 6
1.4 The Framework for Climate Risk Assessment 6
1.5 Assessment Methodology 6
2.0 Climate Change Hazards 7
2.1. Temperature Increase 7
2.2. Sea Level Rise 9
2.3 Extreme Weather Events 10
2.4 Impacts of Climate Change Hazards 11
3.0 Vulnerability to climate change 12
3.1 Urbanization Dynamics 12
3.1.1 Growth of Spontaneous Settlements 13
3.1.2 Settlement in high-risk areas 14
4.0 ADAPTIVE CAPACITY 15
4.1 National Policies and Action Plans 15
4.2 City-level policies and plans 17
4.3 Challenges to Esmeraldas’s Adaptive Capacity 18
5.0 Conclusions and recommendations 19
5.1 Recommendations for National Level Interventions 19
5.2 Recommendations for City Level Interventions 20
REFERENCES 22

1
CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT FOR ESMERALDAS, ECQUADOR:A SUMMARY

LIST OF ACRONYMS

CAN Comunidad Andina de Naciones (Andean Community of Nations)

ENSO El Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscillation
ETA Regional Climate Model
IMF International Monetary Fund
INEC Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos
IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
PRECIS Providing Regional Climates for Impact Studies (Regional Climate Model)
SIISE Sistema Integrado de Indicadores Sociales del Ecuador
US-EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
SLR Sea Level Rise

2
 cities and climate change initiative

1.0
INTRODUCTION

Esmeraldas from the air. Photo © UN-HABITAT

1.1 Cities and Climate Change In many countries, cities are located in coastal areas,
beside rivers, on steep slopes or other risk-prone
Millions of people around the world are already, or will
areas. Infrastructure such as roads, water networks,
be, affected by climate change. Urban areas, which
transmission lines, schools and hospitals providing
typically feature high concentrations of populations and
basic services for urban populations, are vulnerable
buildings, are particularly vulnerable. Climate change
to extreme climatic events such as floods, storms or
is expected to compound the overall vulnerability of
landslides. Cities located in tropical coastal areas are
urban areas through rising sea levels, more frequent
particularly vulnerable to cyclones or rising sea levels,
and stronger weather events, and inland flooding,
the frequency and intensity of which have been on the
among other challenges. At the same time, cities are
increase over the past three decades. In addition, salt
major sources of greenhouse gases, and therefore must
water intrusion restricts the availability of fresh water
stand at the forefront of mitigation efforts. Mitigation
in coastal areas, jeopardizing food security as once-
and adaptation to the effects of climate change
fertile land becomes barren due to high salt content.
must take into account the vulnerable natural and
Cities located in the hinterland or along rivers may be
human systems existing in our urban areas and their
vulnerable to flooding. Conversely, areas where climate
surroundings.
change is expected to reduce rainfall may be affected
by drought, shrinking water tables and food scarcity.

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CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT FOR ESMERALDAS, ECQUADOR:A SUMMARY

In urban areas, the poor are the most vulnerable to the The Cities and Climate Change Initiative also promotes
effects of climate change, and particularly slum dwellers collaboration by local authorities and their associations
in developing countries. in global, regional and national networks; the triple
rationale being (1) to enhance policy dialogue so that
1.2 UN-HABITAT’s Cities and Climate climate change is firmly established on the agenda; (2)
Change Initiative to support local authorities’ efforts to bring about these
changes; and (3) to enhance awareness, education
Cities and local authorities have the potential to and capacity-building in support of climate change
influence the causes of climate change and to find strategies. A major outcome of the initiative will be
how to protect themselves from its effects. The Cities the development of a set of tools for mitigation and
and Climate Change Initiative, a key component adaptation.
of UN-HABITAT’s Sustainable Urban Development
Network (SUD-Net), promotes enhanced climate This report comes under the Cities and Climate Change
change mitigation and adaptation in developing- Initiative. Four pilot cities were selected in 2009, and
country cities. More specifically, the Initiative supports one of their first assignments was for each to assess
the development of pro-poor innovative approaches its vulnerability to climate change. In addition to
to climate change policies and strategies. This Initiative Esmeraldas, the other three cities are Kampala, Uganda;
builds on UN-HABITAT’s rich experience in sustainable Maputo, Mozambique and Sorsogon, Philippines. The
urban development (through the Environmental aim is to provide insights on climate change adaptation
Planning and Management approach of the Sustainable and mitigation capacity in cities in developing and least
Cities Programme and the Localizing Agenda 21 developed countries. The rationale behind this report
Programme) as well as on well-recognized capacity- is to disseminate the early lessons of the Cities and
building tools. The Initiative develops, adapts and Climate Change Initiative.
disseminates the methodologies that put city managers
and practitioners in a better position to cope with
1.3 Esmeraldas
climate change.
Ecuador is located on the west coast of South America
and is crossed by the equator (the country gets its name
Figure 1: Map of Equador C O L O M B I A from the Spanish word for “equator”). Ecuador borders
Colombia to the North, Peru to the East and South,
Esmeraldas and the Pacific Ocean to the West. Ecuador’s capital
city, Quito, is located in the north central part of the
PACIFIC country.
OCEAN

Esmeraldas is a medium sized coastal city located in the

northwestern corner of Ecuador and covers a land area
ECUADOR of 16,155.97 km². The Teaone and Esmeraldas Rivers
flow on one side of the city, and with the Pacific Ocean
on the other side they make up the hydrological system
PERU of the canton. Esmeraldas is part of the Choco micro-
region that has one of the highest rates of biodiversity
Golfo de
Guayaquil
in the world.

1.4 The Framework for Climate Risk

Galápagos
Is.
ECUADOR
Assessment
The structure of this summary of the Esmeraldas
PERU Vulnerability Assessment is based on the proposed
Based on Map No. 3878 Rev. 3 UNITED NATIONS, June 2004
Framework for Urban Climate Risk Assessment
The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or
acceptance by the United Nations developed by the Fifth Urban Research Symposium.

4

Esmeraldas settlements along the river bank are vulnerable to seasonal flooding. Photo © UN-HABITAT
The climate risk assessment framework focuses on how
cities are affected by climate change as opposed to how
they contribute to climate change, and thus adaptation
rather than mitigation is highlighted. The framework
analyses climate risk from three interconnected vectors
– hazards, vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities. These
vectors consist of a combination of physical science,
geographical and socio-economic elements that can be
used by municipal governments to create and carry out
climate change action plans. 1 This summary has been
re-structured to highlight these three perspectives.
1.5 Assessment Methodology
The Esmeraldas study explores the challenges
and opportunities facing Ecuador and the City of
Esmeraldas in their adaptation to future climates. It
systematizes the climate change projections for Ecuador
that are available to decision makers at two levels,
explores the potential negative and positive impacts on
Ecuador of contrasting future climate scenarios, with
emphasis on urban systems, assesses how the current
institutional framework and governance conditions
promote effective adaptation to the new conditions,
and propose a set of tools designed to fill gaps and
to promote the adoption of climate-aware economic,
social and environmental agendas.
Two workshops, one with national experts and
one with city stakeholders, were the main source
1
Framework for City Climate Risk Assessment (2009)
cities and climate change initiative
of information about past and future risks and
opportunities associated with climate change. Two
contrasting climate change projections for the year
2100 were used in both workshops to illustrate
the range of possible futures that adaptation
planning must account for and the identification of
risks and opportunities. In the workshops, specific
operational scenarios were constructed to identify key
adaptation vulnerabilities and opportunities for the
country and city. Operational scenarios are directly
meaningful to policy makers and city managers. The
following scenarios were investigated: health, water
resources, infrastructure, and energy. The workshops
and interviews were also the basis for identifying
opportunities and challenges for adaptation.
In the context of the Esmeraldas study, adaptation is
defined as a planned modification of current conditions
that aims at reducing vulnerabilities that can create
human, economic and environmental losses, or at
enhancing opportunities that can generate human,
economic and environmental benefits arising from
climate change. In various studies, Ecuador appears
as a country with high vulnerability to climate change
due to inadequate governance (Cáceres 2001, CAN et
al. 2007, Thow & de Blois 2008) and specific structural
conditions, such as its high energy consumption per
unit of Gross National Product (Buys et al. 2007).
Although the current analysis provides useful
information, the inclusion of additional models for
similar emission scenarios would strengthen the results
– even though it might render different trends.
5
CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT FOR ESMERALDAS, ECQUADOR:A SUMMARY
2.0
Climate Change Hazards
2.0 Climate Change Hazards
Climate change hazards refer to “the climate induced
stresses on the city and are identified through observed
trends and projections derived from global climate
models and regional down-scaling”.2 These stresses
manifest themselves as heat waves, droughts, inland
floods, accelerated sea-level rise and floods for
coastal cities, and can be tracked through changes in
temperature, precipitation and sea level.
2.1 Temperature Increase
The certainties, variability and uncertainties about
climate change for Ecuador are consistent with those
found in global climate change assessments. All the
climate projections evaluated for this assessment
project a general increase in temperatures. This
is consistent with a well documented increase in
temperature in Ecuador over the last 50 years. Projected
increases in maximum and minimum daily temperatures
for Ecuador for the period 2000-2100 vary between 2.9
o C and 4.4 o C depending on the scenario applied,
and are greater than those obtained across all IPCC
models which predict surface air temperature by 2100
to increase between ~2.2 o C and ~3 o C (Donner et
al. 2005). The geographic variations of the different
projections, however, are significant. For example,
the PRECIS-Echam output shows higher increases of
maximum and minimum temperatures in the eastern
lowlands of the country and lower increases in the
northern coast. The TL959 simulation generates greater
temperature increases along the Andes (Figure1).
The likely impacts of these climatic changes are the
loss of most Andean glaciers and shifts in ecological
altitudinal zoning. As a result, highland cities may
experience diminishing water supplies from retreating
2 Framework for City Climate Risk Assessment (2009), p 8
6
glaciers, temperature inversions and air pollution traps,
and worsened urban heat island conditions. Potential
indirect impacts are linked to increased immigration of
affected rural populations or reduced food production
and higher food prices. In lowland cities, increased
energy demands, pollution, and heat-related health
problems can be anticipated. Overall energy demands
are expected to increase drastically not only because of
higher temperatures and larger populations, but also
due to increased consumption at all levels of society.
The climate projections also indicate very high impacts
on current cold, high Andean landscapes indicating that
three landscapes may disappear: Per-humid cold, Pluvial
cold and Hyper-Pluvial Cool-Temperate. Warm and
temperate landscapes expand at the expense of cold
landscapes in all the models evaluated and landscape
shifts suggest a tendency for ecological simplification,
with some warm humid landscapes becoming more
dominant. Interestingly, using landscapes as indicators
of the potential impact of projected climate changes,
the significant similarities of the outcomes from B2 and
A2 emissions (see Figure 1) scenarios suggests that in
addition to high impact vulnerability, Ecuador also has a
high source of vulnerability.
Under certain conditions, benefits may be attained
from higher temperatures. For example, moderate
temperature increases and carbon fertilization could
improve agricultural production at higher elevations
if irrigation is available, which could benefit Andean
urban areas with strong links to their agricultural
hinterlands. In general, whether temperature increases
have negative or positive impacts depends on the
magnitude of the increase, changes in the other
dimensions of climate, such as local and watershed-
level precipitation patterns, and current social,
economic and environmental conditions. However, it is
difficult to define the final outcome for any given place
in Ecuador because the magnitude of the projected
increase varies widely from projection to projection and
by emission scenario.
 cities and climate change initiative

Figure 2. Illustration of extreme climate projections for Ecuador

Source: Modified from www.paac­ecuador.org. Available on February 28, 2009

The variability and uncertainties associated with the
climate change projections available for the Esmeraldas
River Basin are consistent with those observed for
Ecuador as a whole. Likely impacts of climate and
climate-related changes by the end of this century are
associated with increases in global and local ocean
and land temperatures. For the Esmeraldas River Basin,
projected maximum increases in temperature range
from +3 oC to +2 oC. These are expected to increase
energy demands for domestic and industrial cooling,
cause air pollution, water contamination and health
problems. Energy demands are expected to increase
drastically not only because of higher temperatures
and larger populations, but also due to increased
consumption levels throughout the city.

7
CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT FOR ESMERALDAS, ECQUADOR:A SUMMARY

2.2 Sea Level Rise Figure 3. Exposure of seal level rise in the City of
Esmeraldas.
Other critical outcomes of increased global
temperatures are related to sea level rise (SLR). Cornejo
(2007) estimated potential sea level rise in the 21st
Century to be close to one meter and the First National
Communication used three scenarios, the worst being
a SLR of 1 meter, and a tide surge variation of 3 to 5
meters. Because recent global SLR estimates vary from
one to several meters by the end of this century, a more
probable best and worst case scenario are 1 and 3
meters SLR, and a potential tide surge of up to 5 meters
Based on these estimates, two impact scenarios, one
low (+ 1 meter) and one high (+ 3 meters), each with
a potential 5 meter tide surge, were modeled for this
study.In this worst case scenario (+3 m SLR), based on
current land use patterns, approximately 11% of the
country’s urban land area and 20% of the population
could be directly affected by rising sea levels. The less
pessimistic scenario (+1m SLR) puts these estimates at
3.4% and 12%, respectively. Settlements, infrastructure
and water sources would be severely affected or lost
in these areas. Some coastal Cantones3 could, in the
worst case scenario, lose up to 95% of their land,
and in the less pessimistic scenario up to 60% of their Source: This study. Aerial Photography from Google Earth
land. Cities most affected are around and south of
the Gulf of Guayaquil4. Important indirect impacts on by the ocean in the worst case scenario and nearly half
urban areas would arise from the economic impacts in the plausible scenario. Indirect impacts may arise
on rural areas, loss of fisheries breeding areas, and loss from the loss of employment associated with extractive
of beaches, coastal amenities and recreation areas. activities in nearby mangroves, loss of recreational
Over 50% of rice fields and shrimp farm area could areas currently planned by the city in these islands, and
be covered by water permanently or periodically in displacement of an undetermined population already
the worst case scenario, jeopardizing linked urban living there. Higher water temperatures may also affect
businesses and employment. Increased risk would also nearby fisheries and related employment.
arise from the disappearance of natural coastal buffers,
in particular mangroves, which could lose, in a worst
case scenario, up to half of its 2002 area. 2.3 Extreme Weather Events
Under the SLR scenarios examined in this study, Increased sea temperatures can also be expected
between 3% and 6% of the Esmeraldas city built-up to cause more intense, and possibly more frequent,
area would be permanently or periodically under the ENSO5-like events and alter marine ecosystems. The
sea, displacing between 12,000 to 20,000 people, or effects of the former will be felt mostly in the coastal
8.4% to 14% of the city’s population in 2001 (Figure region that is below 1000 meters of elevation (CAF
2). SLR will also cause extensive land losses in the 2000, Cornejo 2007, Haylock et al. 2006). Losses from
immediate surrounding area. The two largest islands the associated floods can have significant economic
and the area around the city’s airport could be covered and human impacts. The costs of the 1997-1998
floods, the most extensive on record, have been
estimated to be almost 3 billion dollars, of which 785
3 In the Ecuadorian administrative hierarchy, cantones are the second level below
provincias (i.e., province) and above parroquias (i.e., parishes). City governments,
or municipalities, manage the territory of a canton, which may include rural 5 A climate pattern that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean on average every
areas. five years, resulting in floods, droughts and other weather disturbances in many
4 Located at the south coast of the country. regions of the world, which vary with each event.

8

million corresponded to infrastructure and 1,186.8
million to agricultural loses, equivalent to eight to 11%
of country’s Gross National Product for those years.
For the rest of the country, precipitation projections
are much less certain, with model outputs showing
completely opposite future precipitation patterns, with
maximum reductions and gains of up to 80% from
current conditions.
Esmeraldas city is located at the extreme north of the
area of influence of ENSO events and has experienced
important related loses in the past two decades.
The 1997-1998 ENSO event, for example, destroyed
or damaged over 1,000 homes and affected 1,300
families. The main reasons were overflowing of
rivers in local isolated watershed areas and landslides
due to intense precipitation and extreme tides (CAF
2000). Destruction of roads isolated affected areas by
interrupting commodity flows and increasing shortages.
In the city itself, in addition to life and property losses,
rain water networks were blocked by sediments and
debris and city roads were severely damaged. Similar
risks can be expected in the future from rising sea
surface temperatures (SST).
Other dimensions of climate change for the city are
more difficult to define. Projections of changes in
total annual precipitation vary from -50% to + 50%.
Based on current conditions, a given transition path
may cause hardships, such as floods or blackouts,
or improvements, such as lower risks of floods or
better access to drinking water. There are several
small, isolated watersheds in this area that would be
affected severely by either extreme. Unlike large basins,
and especially those with direct connection with the
highlands, there is little room for compensating local
increases or decreases in precipitation.
2.4 Impacts of Climate Change Hazards
The specific impacts of climate change on the city of
Esmeraldas identified by stakeholders vary depending
on the climate transition path guiding the analysis of
potential adaptations and vulnerabilities.
Under climate change scenarios predicting a path
towards hotter and more humid climates, Esmeraldas
would face even greater and more frequent floods
and would thus require more complex planning and
management. Given the current level of exposure to
floods and landslides, increased precipitation would
cause additional life and property loses. Additional
cities and climate change initiative
concerns for stakeholders were increased stress on the
city’s water delivery system and biological contamination
from an open sewage system. Increased precipitation
and higher temperatures would also create a more
suitable environment for tropical parasites and diseases
causing personal hardships and productivity losses as
well as psychological stress. In addition, there would
be higher exposure to pollution from waste-water
dumping from the city’s oil refinery, the cooling waters
of thermoelectric plants, the timber industry south
of the city, and the agrochemicals used by the palm
and banana plantations upstream of the Esmeraldas
and other rivers of the city. A potential source of risk
is the city’s trash dump in the upper watershed of a
local stream that drains into important, low income
settlements in the south of the city. Because local
precipitation in the city has been generally low (~700
mm/year), water contamination from the dump has not
been considered an important issue. Climate change
could reverse that. In contrast, improved agricultural
opportunities in the surrounding areas could benefit the
city’s economy.
Under climate change scenarios predicting a path
towards hotter and dryer climates, Esmeraldas could
potentially experience lower risks of flooding, and
lower stress on its water delivery systems. In contrast,
stakeholders considered water shortages and water
price increases a major concern if the environment
becomes dryer. Currently, almost 100% of the water
used by the city comes from the Esmeraldas River.
Additional concerns of a drying environment are
economic stress due to reduced agricultural productivity
in surrounding areas and increased incidence of diseases
associated with poor sanitation.
Overall, adaptation to climate change in and around
the City of Esmeraldas requires a complex set of actions
designed to compensate current vulnerabilities and
to avoid expanding the range of risks associated with
natural events. According to stakeholder assessments,
adaptation to climate change in Esmeraldas would
consist of structural adjustments, such as the
constructions of upstream water storage and flood
control systems (e.g. dams and reservoirs), levies to
protect flood-prone neighborhoods, the consolidation
of the existing drinking water and sewage systems and
their expansion into new settlements, and institutional
tools, such as zoning plans and cadastral capacity that
improve governance. Economic diversification would
also reduce vulnerability by increasing the resilience of
residents and facilitating the consolidation of marginal
urban areas.
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CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT FOR ESMERALDAS, ECQUADOR:A SUMMARY

3.o
Vulnerability to
climate change

3.0 Vulnerability to climate change Figure 4. Population trends in Ecuador, 1950-2010

According to the Framework for City Climate Risk

Assessment, vulnerability refers to the ‘physical
attributes of the city and its socio-economic
composition that determine the degree of its
susceptibility. The variables affecting vulnerability
include flood-proneness (proximity to coast or river),
land area, elevation, population density, percentage of
the poor, and quality of infrastructure.’6

3.1 Urbanization Dynamics

The current trends of urbanization in Ecuador began in
the 1960s. During this period the Ecuadorian economy
changed drastically, both in terms of its underlying Source CEDIG 1985, INEC 2009
resource base and its spatial organization. At that time,
the most important urban poles were Guayaquil and a continued flow of rural population to urban areas.
other coastal cities, such as Machala and Quevedo, As in most of the developing world, urban expansion
where the export economy of the period was anchored; has concentrated populations in marginal areas (e.g.,
two crops, bananas and coffee, accounted for up to mangrove wetlands and hillsides) of low economic and
92% of yearly exports (IMF 1991). In the early 70’s, political value, often reflecting their vulnerability to
urban polarities changed due to increased government climate events and other natural risks.
investment and the development of oil dependant
The official population estimate for the canton of
urban-based industries and services in the highlands,
Esmeraldas for the year 2010 is 188,694, of which
mainly in Quito, and the booming towns of the
66% is urban, up from 162,225 in 2001, an increase
northern Amazon lowlands; a trend that continued
of 16% in nine years. Esmeraldas is currently the 12th
well into the 1990s. In the past two decades, more
largest municipality and its urban component the 15th
decentralized urban growth has taken place, linked to
largest city in Ecuador7. In most respects, the city is
a service and transport-hub economy, such as in Santo
a typical Ecuadorian medium sized city; its social and
Domingo de los Colorados, and to the expansion of
economic indicators comparable to those of other cities
agro-industries and fisheries, such as in Cayambe and
in the same size group. Previously, the growth rate of
Machala. Since the early 1980s, more people live in
Esmeraldas was lower than that of similar cities because
cities than in rural areas (Figure 3). By 2001, over 60%
of poor economic opportunities. However, in the
of the people lived in urban areas and it is estimated
1980’s, the city’s economy began a transformation with
that by 2010, more than 66% of the population will
the construction of the country’s second oil refinery and
be urban (INEC 2003). With poverty levels in rural
port, and the expansion of timber production in the
areas twice that of urban levels (SIISE 2008), there is
forests north of the city.
6 Framework for City Climate Risk Assessment (2009), p 9
7 Projection from INEC (2004)

10
 cities and climate change initiative

The Ecuadorian urban system, while keeping the
underlying primacy that has characterized Latin
America, is slowly evolving into a diverse urban network
with an increasingly important component of medium
size cities. In the last three decades medium sized cities,
between 150,000 and one million people grew at an
average of 3.6% a year, with some soaring over 5%.
As a result, the share of medium sized cities increased
from 3.8% of the urban population of Ecuador in 1982
to 18.4% in 2001 (INEC 2003).
Medium-sized cities have a distinctive character that
differentiates them from small urban centers and
approximates them to large cities but with some
important disadvantages, such as lower governance
capacities, as suggested by significantly higher financial
dependence on the central government. Most are
unable to impose or foster adaptation, their priorities
and their demands being the provision of basic services
for existing and new neighborhoods.

Table 1. Social and governance indicators for Ecuadorian cities based on their size. (Sources: a) CDC 2003, b) SIISE
2008, c) INFOPLAN 2003.)

City Size 2001

>= 500,000 100,000 – 500,000 10,000-99,999 S O U R CE

N=2 N = 13 N = 19

VARIABLE PERIOD OR VARIABLE AVERA(EST DEV AVERA(E ST DEV AVERA(EST DEV a

ANNUAL 1974 - 1982 4.4 0.1 4.8 1.2 3.2 7.4 a

GROWTH RATE
1982 - 1990 3.0 0.2 3.0 1.3 2.3 4.1 a

1990 - 2001 2.2 0.1 2.7 1.6 1.7 2.1 a

1974 - 2001 3.1 0.1 3.4 1.3 2.3 3.0 a

AVERAGE 1974 1098 856.8 238 647.5 46 107.3 a

DENSITY
(p/km2) 1982 1586 1220.3 348 880.4 60 149.0 a

1990 2005 1515.4 438 1030.8 72 180.6 a

2001 2533 1931.9 592 1256.0 91 252.6 a

SOCIAL EDUCATION INDEX (0-100) 76.4 5.3 67.9 6.5 48.6 8.7 b
INDICES *
HEALTH INDEX (0-100) 67.6 0.2 63.0 3.5 50.6 6.0 c

HOUSING INDEX (0-100) 63.5 3.4 61.8 3.4 51.2 5.6 c

TELEPHONE (% OF HOMES) 49.4 12.7 34.0 8.3 15.3 9.8 b

CROWDINESS (% OF HOMES) 63.5 8.1 61.8 3.5 51.4 8.4 b

BASIC UNMET NEEDS (% OF 43.1 13.4 54.4 7.9 78.2 12.3 b

POPULATION)
GOVERNANCE MUNICIPAL FINANCIAL 52.9 7.8 32.0 10.4 14.4 11.1 c
AUTONOMY
MUNICIPAL CAPITAL 45.8 11.49 48.2 12.76 56.7 11.57 c
INVESTMENT

11
CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT FOR ESMERALDAS, ECQUADOR:A SUMMARY

3.1.1 Growth of Spontaneous Settlements Figure 5. Flood and landslide risk for the City of
Esmeraldas.
Much of the expansion of the Ecuadorian urban
footprint in the past 40 years has been in the form of
spontaneous settlements, often on forcibly occupied
lands, that have been extended by individual and state
actions. Households slowly build and improve on their
individual sites and the state provides public goods and
space in stages. In time, most marginal settlements
have been incorporated into the formal components of
cities through this process of consolidation. However,
urban consolidation makes it less likely that populations
in risk areas can be moved to safer sites, limiting short-
term opportunities to advance adaptation objectives
that are not on-site physical and structural.

3.1.2 Settlement in high-risk areas

As in most cities in Ecuador and Latin America, urban

growth in Esmeraldas has mostly been associated
with occupation of land in areas surrounding the
consolidated city, most of which is high-risk due
to natural disasters (in 2009, the City’s Planning
Department estimated that close to 60% of the
dwellings did not have a building permit). The first
settlement of what is today Esmeraldas stood above
the flood zone of the Esmeraldas River. Since then, a
significant fraction of the new settlement areas have
been on flood zones, mainly in the south along the
Teaone and Esmeraldas Rivers, and on the Piedad and
Prado Islands in front of the city. Until the 1990s, new
settlements faced risks primarily related to floods but
since then an important fraction of the new settlements
Source: City Planning Department. Aerial photograph from
are developed on landslide prone sites, probably Google Earth.
attracted by the significant infrastructure improvements
in older hillside settlements. Overall, sixty six percent
of the city shows medium to high exposure to climate
related risks (see Figure 4).

12
 cities and climate change initiative

Table 2. Historical risk levels from floods (blue) and landslides (red) for the City of Esmeraldas. Each risk tabulated
independently based on risk and historical maps from the City’s Planning Department.

Upland Flood Zone Stable Areas Unstable Areas

Period Total (Has)
H a s H a s H a s Has
1880 30 100.0 0 0.0 30.0 100.0 0.0 0.0 30
1960 158 98.8 2 1.3 145.0 90.6 15.0 9.4 160
1975 489 87.3 71 12.7 398.0 71.1 95.0 17.0 560
1980 381 78.6 104 21.4 474.0 97.7 8.0 1.6 485
1990 331 84.7 60 15.3 370.0 94.6 21.0 5.4 391
2004 1133 88.0 154 12.0 996.0 77.4 220.0 17.1 1287
TOTAL 2522 86.6 391 13.4 2413.0 82.8 359.0 12.3 2913

The City of Esmeraldas in particular, faces significant Figure 6. Esmeraldas - hazard risk at Los Pinos
challenges due to physical exposure. This corresponds neighborhood, sewage pond and flood zone
to situations where human populations or property
are located in high risk areas and it is not possible,
politically, socially or economically, to change their
location. One of the key challenges Esmeraldas will
face is the ongoing expansion of informal settlements
along flood zones of the Taeone and Esmeraldas Rivers
and the low-lying Piedad and Prado islands, which are
likely to be affected by climate change through SLR
and ENSO-like events. Such is the case of Los Pinos, an
informal settlement that inundates often with a mixture
of river and nearby sewage pond waters (Figure 5).
Spatially the growth of the urban component of the
canton in the last decade has concentrated in the
south of the city, in new neighborhoods such as La
Tolita, Tiwintza, San Rafael and Los Pinos. In general,
while the most recent settlements lack infrastructure,
in particular paved access roads, piped water, sewage
systems, and social services, in older spontaneous
settlements, such as Esmeraldas Libre and La Propicia,
basic services have been acquired - mostly electricity,
piped water and paved access roads - through
negotiation with the city’s municipality. In these
areas significant urban consolidation is evident, to the
point that settlements in high risk areas look similar to Source: Adaptation to Climate Change in Ecuador and the city
those in safe areas. Currently, a new front of settlement of Esmeraldas: An Assessment of Challenges and Opportunities.
Rodrigo Sierra, Saskia Flores, Giannina Zamora. November, 2009.
expansion has opened in the mangrove islands in front P30.
of the city at Isla Piedad and Isla Prado. Because new
roads are being opened into these formerly hard-to-
access islands, including a bridge to link the city to the
airport on the other shore of the Esmeraldas River, it
is possible to foresee additional growth of informal
settlements in these islands, and further on the other
shore of the river.

13
CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT FOR ESMERALDAS, ECQUADOR:A SUMMARY
4.0
ADAPTIVE CAPACITY
4.0 ADAPTIVE CAPACITY
The adaptive capacity of a city refers to the
“institutional attributes of the city and its actors that
determine the degree of its capability to respond to
potential climate change impacts” The Ministry of Environment is leading the
8 It measures the willingness and ability to cope and
respond positively to the stresses of climate change.
4.1 National Policies and Action Plans
Ecuador has an ample institutional platform at the level
of the central government to support adaptation. The
underlying institutional frameworks for climate change
adaptation (and mitigation) are the Constitution of
2008 and the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCC), signed in 1992.
Additional thrust is provided by the commitments made
by Ecuador in 1996 at the Habitat II Conference in
Istanbul, where the country agreed to work to improve
the quality and access to appropriate housing and
infrastructure of the country.
Since the signing of the Climate Change Convention
in 1996, the Ministry of Environment has been the
focal organization and the counterpart for the Climate
Change Convention. The Ministry has created a Climate
Change Under-Secretary to lead action and planning
and to coordinate with other agencies working or
affected by related issues. The Ministry has also has
spearheaded several studies to assess the impacts of
climate change effects in strategic sectors such as
agriculture, water resources, tropical forests, coastal
areas, deforested areas and areas vulnerable to floods.
The Ministry of Environment’s Adaptation to Climate
Change Project is the main tool to disseminate the
information available about climate change. Additional
support is provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
8 Framework for City Climate Risk Assessment (2009), p 9
14
National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology,
Naval Oceanographic Institute and various cooperating
national (e.g., SIISE) and international organizations
(e.g., UNDP, UN-HABITAT, US-EPA).
development of a National Climate Change Strategy,
which will propose national policies to manage and
mainstream climate change, including the design of
“Sectoral and Multi-Sectoral Adaptation to Climate
Change Plans”. The National Climate Change Strategy
seeks to develop an integrated social response to
reduce the vulnerability and enhance the opportunities
of the country and to mainstream climate change
into national policies for sustainable development. To
do this, it proposes: 1) Strengthening the country’s
capacity to monitor climate and assess vulnerabilities,
2) Developing green house gas emission inventories,
3) Planning and implementing mitigation measures,
and 4) Planning and implementing climate change
adaptations. The National Institute of Meteorology
and Hydrology and the Naval Oceanographic Institute
are responsible for generating and monitoring climate
information, with the former managing continental
information and the latter oceanic data. However, these
institutions are limited in processing existing archived
and generate new information that could enhance
climate change assessments for the country as they lack
staff dedicated exclusively to climate change issues.
Also, and in addition to the inadequacies of high-
resolution or statistically downscaled global climate
models highlighted earlier, local models developed
with regional modeling platforms, such as ETA or
PRECIS, use baseline climate models, or climatologies,
which according to local climate experts do not reflect
Ecuadorian climate systems well. These shortcomings
limit the applicability of these models to guide climate
change adaptation work, including this study. Further,
available climate series are incomplete, with fewer
than 10 weather stations with complete series for 30
 cities and climate change initiative

A neighbourhod in Esmeraldas. Photo © UN-HABITAT

continuous years or more. Also, a significant amount of Additional thrust and tools for climate change
climate data remains on paper. The National Institute adaptation arise from risk management policies and
of Meteorology and Hydrology has begun a process national objectives. The 2008 Ecuadorian Constitution,
of systematization of existing climate data with the amongst other provisions, obligates the State to protect
objective of defining an official climatology for the the population from human-induced and natural
country to be used in the next generation of national disasters, and to mitigate associated negative impacts
climate projections. and restore the appropriate social, economic and
environmental conditions. Closely linked and under the
In 2005 the country began to implement a series
Constitution are: a) the National Development Plan and
of plans and projects to initiate adaptation and
b) the National Security, Sovereignty, and Democracy
mitigation processes. So far, operational adaptation
Strategy. These provide the direct framework for the
efforts have emphasized water management issues.
country’s efforts to manage risks related to natural
The National Adaptation to Climate Change Project
disasters. The National Secretariat for Risk Management
aims at reducing the vulnerability to climate change
with the participation of other State organizations
by strengthening water governance at the national
coordinates the work of risk management and will
and local level and integrating climate change risk
develop the National Strategy to Reduce Risk and
concepts in water management and programs. Overall,
Disasters. Operationally, the responsible agency
however, the institutionalization of mitigation objectives
is the newly created National Secretariat for Risk
has advanced more than those of adaptation, maybe
Management of the Ministry of Internal and External
because of the opportunities they represent through,
Security. Although this institutional structure does
among other options, clean development mechanisms
not address climate change directly, it supports the
and potential green-house credit markets (for now
management of risks relevant to climate change
mainly carbon credits). The Climate Change Under-
adaptation in urban and rural areas. The Strategy, in
Secretary is in charge of promoting CDM projects and
particular, constitutes the underlying guide to enhance
provides guidance at all stages of project development.
risk management capacities in the country and bring
There is no equivalent, either governmental or non-
risk management to the level of national policy.
governmental, to promote adaptation programs and
projects.

15
CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT FOR ESMERALDAS, ECQUADOR:A SUMMARY

The three largest cities in Ecuador, Guayaquil, Quito

and Cuenca, have began institutional efforts to
incorporate climate change criteria in city planning. Of
the smaller cities, Esmeraldas has also taken some steps
to assess its exposure to climate change and future
options. Medium-sized and small cities face significant
barriers for developing independent, and city specific
climate change strategies. Although these barriers are
the same as those found at the national level, they
also include sectoral management requirements that
are inconsistent with management capacities as the
following analysis in the City of Esmeraldas shows.

4.2 City-level policies and plans

The City of Esmeraldas does not have a formal strategy,
ordinance or regulation to promote adaptation to
climate change. Recent municipal administrations
have taken steps that have reduced the vulnerability
of the city to certain types of climate exposure but the
inherent structure of the city and its historical expansion
conditions continue to present significant challenges for
city managers.
In terms of governance, city managers recognize
as a key climate change-related challenge the city’s
technical inability, and sometimes political resistance,
to implementing and enforcing zoning regulations.
Technically, while city managers recognize that various
forms of risk need to be taken into account when
assigning property rights to city dwellers, the scale
of the information available to reach decisions about
the appropriate use of land is insufficient. Politically,
climate change decisions can rarely be justified in terms
of future urban needs (that are measured in decades,
and almost never in generations), which complicates
the communication and negotiation of climate change
related objectives.
In recent years, the Municipality of Esmeraldas,
with the support of civil, governmental and non-
governmental organizations, has been working to
improve the city’s adaptability to climate change.
The main source of institutional support to climate
change adaptation and mitigation objectives in
Esmeraldas has been UN-HABITAT’s Localising Agenda
21 (LA 21) Program. This program has worked with
city managers to enhance local capacity and urban
planning to respond to climate change. Specifically
relevant for climate change adaptation, the city’s
Planning Department has acquired technical and
Settlements on the hills are prone to landslide.
Photo © UN-HABITAT
human capabilities to perform basic planning activities
and is currently developing a zoning program for the
city and surrounding area (i.e., the county). As a result,
Esmeraldas has adopted zoning tools to manage certain
risks (although climate change is not yet considered
in the decision making process). Zoning is an effective
tool for reducing exposure to specific climate risks, such
as floods. LA 21 also supported the implementation
of environmental programs, including the initial
coordination of an information tool to systematize risk
data and to incorporate risk into the city’s planning and
management processes; however, additional technical
support is needed to manage this information. UN-
HABITAT has also facilitated inter-city cooperation with
other cities in Ecuador, such as Cuenca and Loja, in
issues related to sustainable urban planning. As in most
cities of Ecuador, climate change related studies and
activities planned for or implemented in Esmeraldas
have been conducted without taking into account
concrete climate scenarios.
Additional initiatives with climate change adaptation
value arise indirectly from other municipal programs,
such as the Health and Environment Program (Programa
Salud y Medio Ambiente Esmeraldas - SYMAE). The
program has promoted the creation of Canton’s Health
Council, which includes a forum for risk management

16

and disaster prevention, and supports the development
of Participatory Rural Appraisals as a planning tool
for rural parishes and as baseline development of the
climate change strategy in these areas. It also provides
assistance for rural infrastructure (sewage, water, dry
toilets) development, and the development of waste
management feasibility studies and ordinances. Indeed,
it is important to note that most of what has been
accomplished in sanitation, infrastructure, and urban
planning capacity has not been motivated by concerns
over climate change, but through strategies seeking
better planning processes and poverty reduction.
Still, risk reduction and adaptation to past natural
threats has contributed significantly to reducing
climate change vulnerabilities in Esmeraldas. Such
interest, however, is not necessarily a good indicator
of the level of understanding of the risks, needs, and
opportunities associated with future climate transitions
and, therefore, cannot be counted to generate further
adaptation without additional support directed
specifically at highlighting the differences and variability
of potential climate transitions.
4.3 Challenges to Esmeraldas’s
Adaptive Capacity
Challenges to the adaptive capacity of Esmeraldas
include limitations associated with lack of information
and risk management tools, including cadastral tools
and early warning systems, and insufficient financial
capacity to implement adaptation measures. For
example, in Los Pinos9 neighborhood, the city is unable
to relocate the resident families because it lacks the
resources to buy land. In 2008, 50% of Esmeraldas’
annual budget of US$ 21 million was spent on general
operations expenditures (salaries, fuel). With an
estimated target population of over 180,000, the city
was only able to invest about US$ 60 per person on
improvements. Indeed, few cities in Ecuador have the
capacity to invest in flood and water storage systems,
relocation programs for high-risk populations, or
promote structural adaptations to improve efficiencies
in resource use and transmission. Medium-sized and
small cities in particular show important constraints to
develop and implement local adaptation plans because
of limited financial resources. Because the relocation of
families living in the city’s flood zones is economically
9 Los Pinos is an informal settlement located in a flood prone area to the south of
the city.
cities and climate change initiative
and politically unlikely, adaptation will require physical
modification, such as the construction of levies and
discharge channels. However, application of structural
modifications needs to be carefully evaluated and
accompanied by measures to reduce any resulting
physical exposure of settlements and infrastructure.
In addition, there are conditions that jeopardize or slow
down the pace of adaptation. Three such conditions
stand out: 1) minimal local governance related urban
planning and city management issues relevant to
climate change adaptation, 2) incongruent levels
of coordination and planning between the central
government and its regional dependencies, the city’s
government, and Esmeraldas’ civil society, and 3) lack
of understanding of the value-added to standard
municipal actions and plans by adaptation to climate
change. A low level of governance is expressed by a
generalized inability, and sometimes political resistance,
to enforce zoning laws. Incongruent management
domains occur when adaptation depends on managing
a risk factor, a resource or a sector that is not under
the city’s control. In general, water, energy and health
planning and policy fall outside of the city’s jurisdiction
as defined by the 2008 Ecuadorian Constitution.
The obligations of municipal governments include
the provision of drinking water, risk management,
and land use planning but operational capacities
and programmatic efforts are concentrated at the
level of the central government. Water policy and
management roles, for example, are assigned to the
central government and, through a new upcoming
water law, to a national authority and by delegation
possibly to provincial governments. In the current draft
of the law, cities could participate and comment on
water policy issues but could not vote on them. Similar
gaps exist in the energy and health sectors. Although
the issue of reliable risk information is probably the
most urgent from a zoning perspective, there are
other management sectors of the city that also require
improved governance, such as eradication of corruption
and the control of emissions from factories, the refinery
and cars. Additional limitations include the lack of a
consensus climate projection to guide and motivate
adaptation strategies and planning, incompatible time
and geographic scales between policy and climate
change agendas (i.e., contrasting priorities), and the
lack of capacity on the part of the central and local
governments to manage the territory.
17
CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT FOR ESMERALDAS, ECQUADOR:A SUMMARY

5.0
Conclusions and
recommendations

A detailed study of urban dynamics (Angel et al.

2005), concluded that “Developing country cities
should be making realistic - yet minimal - plans for
urban expansion, designating adequate areas for
accommodating the projected expansion, investing
wisely in basic trunk infrastructure to serve this
expansion, and protecting sensitive land from incursion
by new urban development”. While reasonable,
such strategy is inconsistent with the informality and
spontaneous nature of urban growth in developing
world’s cities, governments priorities normally defined
in years and often in elected periods, and household
and firm priorities defined in days, weeks or, at best,
months. At the same time, when assessing the viability
of climate change adaptations, it is important to Esmeraldas town.
understand that within the assumed chaos of urban Photo © UN-HABITAT/ Municipio de Esmeraldas
expansion there is a clear social logic: People in the
developing world take advantage of the resources at Esmeraldas, the following proposals of actions and tools
their disposal (labor, capital, entitlements) and are willing arise:
to accept a necessary level of risk. In Esmeraldas, this
means settling in areas that regularly flood and that are 5.1 Recommendations for National
expected to flood regularly in the future. Many of these Level Interventions
areas, which began as informal, makeshift settlements,
cannot be differentiated today from other, safer areas of It is hoped that the Esmeraldas experience can be
the city. These high-risk urban areas, with paved roads, the basis for the formulation of a National Urban
brick houses and social facilities such as schools, are Climate Change Adaptation Blueprint to complement
abandoned when the water rises, only to be occupied the National Climate Change Strategy. The priority
as soon as the water ebbs. Adaptation strategies at the level of national urban systems should be to
need to recognize and accept this reality rather than bring adaptation to the same level of implementation
propose ideal courses of action that cannot be realized. as mitigation, moving from generic strategies and
Accepting such realities, however, does not mean that mandates to specific adaptation interventions. The
the information predicting the seriousness, if not the following tools would contribute to this process:
details, of the impacts of climate change is not a priority.
1. A National Climate Change Information System
Broadly, the challenge for enabling agents (such as to make systematized consensus information
UN-HABITAT) is to enhance urban capacities to engage available to stakeholders in appropriate scales and
climate change with flexible tools that could allow cities formats to guide adaptation efforts. This requires
to identify specific adaptations that are dependent supporting and enhancing climate change research
on both current conditions and priorities taking into and monitoring, in particular by the National
account future risk balances and the nature of expected Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology and
climate changes. Specifically, from the challenges and Naval Oceanographic Institute, and the formation
vulnerabilities identified for Ecuador and the City of
18

of a National Consultative Group of Experts on
climate change. The role of the Consultative group
would be to interpret abstract climate change
dimensions to terms that city managers can use
to communicate with their constituencies and to
clarify local consequences and concerns at the level
of households and firms. Sector based approaches,
consistent with the management strategies of
cities in general, and of the City of Esmeraldas in
particular, are necessary to bridge the significant
gap in the institutionalization of the concepts and
objectives of adaptation to climate change at levels
that are directly relevant for urban planning and
to improve their ability to take effective action and
manage risk and opportunities.
2. A National Climate Change Adaptation Fund to
support the implementation of concrete adaptation
measures that address specific vulnerabilities of
urban areas and their regions of influence. Most
of the adaptation options identified in this study
will not take place without concrete incentives and
support equivalent to that available for mitigation
actions, requiring in most cases subsidies or
transfers to be executed. Also, adapting effectively
to climate change requires not only reducing current
and future vulnerabilities but also taking advantage
of potential opportunities and new comparative
advantages. Development policies are as important
as climate policies to ensure sustainability and
climate stabilization (IPCC 2007).
3. A National Urban Climate Change Adaptation
Blueprint to guide the assessment of city
specific vulnerabilities to climate change and the
development of local climate change adaptation
(and mitigation) strategies, including the efficient
articulation of national development, sectoral and
climate change adaptation objectives and tools
to local/specific urban planning and management
objectives. The blueprint would be a systematic
protocol for cities to articulate correctly general/
broad national adaptation objectives and relevant
resource management tools to local/specific urban
planning and management objectives. In particular,
the blueprint should serve as a facilitating how-
to-do, step by step guide to link the objectives
defined by the central government’s development
agenda and the mandates, temporal action scales,
and capacities of local city governments. This
tool should provide a systematic guide to the
construction of city level strategies, and could also
provide rules to support actions for adaptation.
cities and climate change initiative
It is important to note that the first two tools are
already contemplated in the Ministry of Environment’s
National Climate Change Strategy draft. Its completion,
adoption, and implementation would constitute an
important and concrete tool to guide and promote
adaptation to climate change in Ecuador.
5.2 Recommendations for City Level
Interventions
At the level of the City of Esmeraldas, tools are needed
to increase the perceived value of adopting a Climate
Change aware agenda and to guide the development
of the city’s Climate Change Strategy. Specifically, the
following tools are proposed:
1. A City of Esmeraldas’ Climate Change Adaptation
Strategy to facilitate the systematization and
participatory integration of technical and political
agendas in areas that concern climate change.
The strategy should: 1) be the basis of concrete
regulatory (e.g., ordinances) or economic tools
(e.g., taxes), 2) design and implement the necessary
information systems (e.g., early warning, sectoral
interpretations of climate channge risks and
opportunities), and 3) put to work supporting
tools for implementing programs that advance the
climate change agenda, with emphasis on zoning,
territorial organization, risk prevention, water
source and treatment. The strategy should address
the specific vulnerabilities of the city, with emphasis
on processes that increase physical exposure,
generating adequate capacities and resources, and
correcting institutional inefficiencies. Corrective
measures to reduce risk for existing populations or
property located in high risk areas and preventive
measures to minimize the expansion of the high-
risk footprint should be evaluated. In some sectors,
strategies for generating economies of scale may
be needed (e.g. water). Application of structural
modifications needs to be carefully evaluated.
2. Capacity Building in Urban Planning and Design
Strategy to improve governance capacities that
advance the climate change agenda, including
zoning tools, a cadastral system, and an early
warning and risk monitoring system. It should
include plans for information development and
human resource support, with emphasis on
the environmental and planning units of the
Municipality. These conditions are necessary for
the efficient implementation of the City’s Climate
Change Strategy.
19
CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT FOR ESMERALDAS, ECQUADOR:A SUMMARY

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Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment
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21
 Climate Change Assessment
for Esmeraldas, ECUADOR:
A Summary

UN-HABITAT’s Cities and Climate Change Initiative promotes enhanced climate change mitigation and
adaptation in developing country cities. Esmeraldas is a pilot city of the Initiative, and this document is an
initial output of the city’s Cities and Climate Change Initiative activities. This summary on climate change
assessment for Esmeraldas is based on the report titled “Adaptation to Climate Change in Ecuador and
the City o f Esmeraldas: An Assessment of Challenges and Opportunities”

The Esmeraldas Climate Change Assessment explores the challenges and opportunities facing Ecuador
and the City of Esmeraldas in their adaptation to future climates. Starting with an overview of the climate
change hazards that the city is exposed to, the study examines various climate change projections,
exploring the potential negative and positive impacts of contrasting climate scenarios. This is followed by
an examination of the vulnerability of Esmeraldas to climate change, focusing on current urban dynamics.
The assessment then looks at Esmeraldas’ adaptive capacity to climate change, focusing on policy and
institutions at both national and local level. It concludes with recommendations for both national and Cities And Climate Change Initiative
local level interventions to improve climate change adaptation in Esmeraldas.

HS Number: HS/157/10E
ISBN Number:(Volume) 978-92-1-132269-9

United Nations Human Settlements Programme

Sustainable Urban Development Network (SUD-Net)
Urban Environment and Planning Branch, UN-HABITAT
P. O. Box 30030, 00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 254-020-7625404, Fax: 254-020-7623715
Email: sud-net@unhabitat.org
Website: www.unhabitat.org/sudnet